"Damn." The word came out before I had time to think about it. Ash Mercer only smiled wider, like that reaction was somehow better than whatever he had been expecting.
For a moment I just stood there, looking at him. I had heard his name plenty of times before, even in Evervale, but hearing about the King of the Third Layer and having him sitting a few feet away from me were two very different things.
Ash pushed his glasses back into place. "I've had people bow, freeze up, refuse to look at me, and one man nearly fell over once. I think I prefer yours."
"Sorry," I said. "I wasn't expecting you."
"I gathered that."
Lady Koret gave a quiet laugh beside me while Calexis remained near one of the pillars, arms folded. Neither of them seemed particularly surprised by any of this, which only made me feel like I was the only person in the cathedral who hadn't been told what kind of meeting I was walking into.
Then one thought pushed everything else aside.
Third Layer. Isabella.
I felt myself stiffen slightly before I could stop it. Ash's eyes stayed hidden behind the dark lenses, but his head tilted enough that I knew he had noticed.
"You looked considerably less worried before I told you who I was," he said.
"I'm not worried."
"Alright."
He didn't argue with me, which somehow made it more obvious that he didn't believe me. Ash leaned back in his chair for another second before pushing himself to his feet.
"For what it's worth, Dagian, you're not in trouble. Nobody brought you here to arrest you, question you about some law you didn't know existed, or anything else you seem to be imagining."
"I wasn't imagining any of that."
"Good. Then we've already cleared up a problem that apparently didn't exist."
The corner of Lady Koret's mouth lifted. Calexis, unsurprisingly, gave him nothing.
Ash looked around the huge central chamber and rolled one of his shoulders. "I've been sitting in here most of the morning. Walk with me."
I glanced toward the corridor he was already turning toward. "Where are we going?"
"Nowhere important. I just don't feel like having this conversation sitting in the same room with three people listening to every word."
Lady Koret raised an eyebrow. "You invited two of those three people."
"And now I'm uninviting them."
"You are very gracious."
"I try."
Ash looked back at me and motioned toward the corridor. I wasn't sure what I expected from the King of the Third Layer, but being casually pulled away from what was supposed to be some important meeting wasn't anywhere near it.
Still, I followed him.
The cathedral changed the farther we moved away from the main chamber. The polished stone and enormous decorated pillars slowly gave way to older walls, narrower corridors, and windows whose colored glass had faded around the edges.
Ash walked at an easy pace, slow enough that my injuries weren't much of a problem. I noticed that he had adjusted almost immediately after the first staircase without saying anything about it.
"How's the recovery?" he asked.
"Better."
"That's vague."
"It hurts less than it did a week ago. I can walk around without someone following me every five feet, and apparently that counts as progress."
"It does."
He glanced briefly toward the bandaging still visible beneath my sleeve. "And Vireth?"
My hand moved instinctively at my side. "Nothing yet."
"I heard."
The answer bothered me more than I wanted it to. Every time someone brought up Vireth, there was that same empty feeling where I expected something to answer me.
"The doctors said it could take a few more weeks," I continued. "My Eidolon system was damaged badly enough that they're surprised I'm even recovering this quickly."
"They should be."
I looked toward him. "You know something they don't?"
"No. I've just read how badly injured you were."
That answer was simple enough.
Ash kept walking. "I read quite a bit about you before today, actually."
"I assumed."
"You did?"
"I didn't think the King of the Third Layer was meeting random Hunters without checking who they were first."
"That would be irresponsible."
He sounded almost amused by the idea. "Although you weren't exactly difficult to research."
I looked toward him.
Ash continued before I could ask. "Your name has been moving around the Hunter organization for a while. Nineteen, already operating at your level, unusually consistent during Hunts, and apparently everyone has been arguing over how long it'll take before you're officially Ranked."
"That sounds dramatic."
"It usually is when Hunters talk about other Hunters."
I knew people talked. I'd heard enough of it myself over the last couple years, especially whenever I ended up working with someone I hadn't met before.
Ash looked ahead. "The Imgrel didn't make people notice you, Dagian. It made the people who were already watching you start paying considerably more attention."
I was quiet for a few seconds. "I figured something like that would happen."
"You don't sound thrilled."
"I don't really care."
"You want to become Ranked, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Then you care a little."
"That's different."
Ash glanced over, waiting for me to explain.
"I want to earn the rank. I don't care about everyone trying to decide when it'll happen before I actually do it."
"That makes more sense."
We passed beneath another arch, sunlight cutting through a tall stained-glass window and stretching across the floor. The image in the glass had faded enough that I could only make out a knight holding something above his head.
Ash was quiet for a little while before speaking again. "The Quiet Hunter."
I sighed softly. "There it is."
He smiled. "You knew I was going to bring it up."
"Most people do eventually."
"It's a strange nickname considering you've been talking to me for the last ten minutes without much trouble."
"You've been asking questions."
"I suppose that helps."
I looked forward again. "I don't know who started calling me that. I just didn't talk much during Hunts, and apparently that was interesting enough for people to give me a name."
"You didn't talk much outside of them either, from what I've heard."
"Depends who you ask."
"Fair."
His tone stayed light, but he wasn't asking pointless questions. I was starting to realize that every time I gave him an answer, he actually listened to it instead of waiting for his chance to speak again.
He knew my record already. What he seemed interested in was everything the record couldn't tell him.
We entered a wider corridor lined with statues. Some were Hunters, others wore armor old enough that I couldn't tell what group they belonged to.
Ash slowed near one of them, then looked up at its worn face. "Do you know who this is?"
I studied it for a moment. "No."
"Good."
I looked at him. "Good?"
"I don't know either."
"Then why did you ask?"
"I wanted to see if I was the only one."
I stared at him for a second before shaking my head.
Ash gave a quiet laugh and continued walking. "This cathedral has been rebuilt so many times that half the people represented in here probably aren't remembered correctly anymore."
"You'd think someone would write their names down."
"They probably did. Then somebody lost them."
"You're very confident in the Third Layer's record keeping."
"I'm confident in people losing things."
That almost got a laugh out of me.
We continued another few steps before Ash spoke again. "There was something else I noticed."
"What?"
"Your surname."
That killed whatever amusement had been there.
Ash didn't immediately continue. He let me look at him before saying, "Your official records say Solmaris, but most reports just call you Dagian. Even people who know you personally seem to avoid using it."
"I don't use it."
There was a brief pause. Then Ash nodded. "Alright."
That was it.
I kept walking for another few seconds before looking toward him again. "You're not going to ask?"
"Why?"
"That's usually what people do."
"I assumed there was a reason."
"There is."
"And if you wanted me to know it, you'd probably tell me."
I didn't know what to say to that.
Ash slipped his hands into the pockets of his dark clothing. "Dagian works fine."
Most people reacted differently once they learned the name. Solmaris usually led to Erik, and Erik usually led to questions I didn't want to answer. Sometimes people tried complimenting me by comparing us, which only made it worse.
I had spent years becoming good at what I did. I didn't need his name attached to it.
Ash apparently understood enough not to push. That alone made talking to him easier.
We reached a staircase curling upward around the interior wall of the cathedral. Ash started climbing, then slowed after only a few steps when he noticed I wasn't keeping the same pace.
"You can keep going," I said.
"I'm in no hurry."
"I'm not going to collapse."
"I didn't say you were."
He kept the slower pace anyway.
At the top, we entered another open chamber filled with old paintings. One wall showed the Five Layers stacked above one another, each divided by bands of pale light.
Another painting was much larger.
The Great War.
I stopped in front of it.
I had seen paintings of the war before, but nothing this detailed. Thousands of figures filled the canvas, most impossible to make out individually, with the sky above them torn apart by colors I couldn't place.
Ash stopped beside me. "You've seen that version?"
"No."
"There are hundreds of them."
"All different?"
"Usually."
I looked toward him. "How can there be hundreds of versions of the same thing?"
"Because nobody alive was there, and the people who wrote about it weren't particularly good at agreeing with one another."
I looked back at the painting. "So which one is right?"
"Probably parts of all of them."
"You don't know?"
Ash shook his head.
That surprised me enough that he noticed.
"What?"
"I figured you would."
"Because I'm King?"
"Yeah."
"That position gives me access to a lot of information, Dagian. It unfortunately didn't come with the ability to know everything."
"I thought that was part of the crown."
"I asked. They told me no."
A small smile escaped before I could stop it.
Ash noticed, but thankfully didn't say anything.
Instead, he looked toward the painting again. "How old were you when you decided you wanted to become a Hunter?"
"Probably fourteen."
"That early?"
"I didn't actually start until sixteen."
"I know."
Of course he did.
Ash leaned lightly against one of the stone columns beside the painting. "Why?"
"To kill Pit-Spawn."
"That's the obvious answer."
"It's also the real one."
"I believe you. I'm asking why you decided being angry at them wasn't enough."
I looked at him for a few seconds.
Ash waited.
I had answered questions like this before, usually from instructors or younger Hunters trying to figure out why anyone would willingly go through induction. Most of the time I gave some simple answer and moved on.
This time, I actually thought about it.
"I grew up around Hunts."
Ash remained quiet.
"Everyone in Evervale does, but when you're young you don't understand much of it. You just know when the alarms start, you get inside. My mother used to pull me away from windows because I'd try to see what was happening."
"You were curious?"
"Stupid."
"Those can overlap."
I ignored that. "Sometimes you'd hear Hunters outside. Sometimes Pit-Spawn. Then you'd wake up the next morning and part of the street was gone."
Ash's expression had changed slightly, the smile disappearing.
"I hated waiting."
"For the Hunt to end?"
"For someone else to save us."
I leaned back against the wall. "I remember being scared every time one got close. I didn't know what it was, how strong it was, or whether the Hunters nearby could actually kill it. All I could do was sit there."
"So you became one."
"Eventually."
"How was induction?"
I gave him a look.
Ash smiled a little. "I know how it works. I'm asking how it was for you."
"Terrible."
"That bad?"
"They set you on fire."
"I'm aware."
"Then yeah. That bad."
The memory still came easily. Heat climbing over my skin. My entire body telling me to get away even though there was nowhere to go.
I could remember my hands shaking afterward more clearly than some Hunts I'd been through since.
"I almost stopped," I admitted.
"During induction?"
"Before the final stage."
Ash didn't seem surprised. "What kept you there?"
I thought about it. "I'd already spent two years telling myself I wanted to do it. I wasn't going to leave because it hurt more than I expected."
"You ever regret staying?"
"Sometimes."
Ash raised an eyebrow.
"Not enough to quit," I added. "But anyone who says they've never regretted becoming a Hunter for even five minutes is probably lying."
"I'll remember that."
"Planning to become one?"
"No."
"Smart."
That got another laugh from him.
We started walking again.
The chamber opened into a long upper hallway, the windows on one side showing more and more of Alderra as we moved. Ash asked about Vireth after that, not the technical details, but what it had been like summoning an Eidolon for the first time.
Then about my first Hunt. Then about whether I actually enjoyed Hunting.
That question took longer to answer.
"I enjoy being good at it," I eventually said.
"That wasn't exactly what I asked."
"I know."
Ash looked over.
I thought about it again. "Some parts. Training. Getting stronger. Learning what Vireth can do. I like knowing something that would've killed me three years ago probably wouldn't now."
"And killing Pit-Spawn?"
"That too."
"That answer came quicker."
"You grow up in Evervale."
"I suppose."
We finally reached an archway at the end of the corridor. Daylight filled it.
Ash stepped outside first. I followed and stopped.
The balcony wrapped around a huge section of the cathedral, high enough that most of Alderra stretched beneath us. I had been outside since waking up, but I hadn't seen the city like this.
Dark stone rooftops spread across miles of streets, broken up by trees, courtyards, towers, and districts I couldn't name yet. There was movement everywhere below us, but from this height the city almost seemed calmer than it really was.
Farther away, I could see areas that had been converted for refugees from Evervale.
Ash moved toward the railing. "Better view than inside."
I joined him. "Yeah."
He rested his arms against the stone. "So?"
"So what?"
"What do you think of Alderra?"
"It's nice."
Ash glanced toward me. "That sounded reluctant."
"It is nice."
"Better."
I looked back over the city. Everything here looked cleaner. Maintained.
Even the older buildings seemed like somebody actually cared whether they stayed standing.
"Different from home," I said.
"That's a polite way of putting it."
"Evervale isn't that bad."
Ash turned his head slightly.
I looked at him. "Alright. It's bad."
"That I believe."
I smiled faintly before looking back toward the city.
Ash was quiet for a moment. "Would you live here?"
The question caught me off guard.
"I don't know."
"You've never thought about leaving Evervale?"
"I've thought about seeing other Layers."
"That isn't quite the same thing."
"No."
"Then if someone offered you a home here tomorrow?"
I rested my arms against the railing. "I'd probably say no."
"Probably?"
"It depends."
"On?"
I thought for a second. "My mother. My friends. What was happening in Evervale."
Ash nodded. "So home."
"Basically."
"Even now?"
I looked at him.
"After the Imgrel."
My eyes moved back toward the refugee sections below us. "Especially now."
That answer seemed to interest him.
"Why?"
"If something destroys part of where you live, I don't think that suddenly makes it less yours."
Ash stayed quiet.
"My mother grew up here," I added.
"In Alderra?"
"Until she was seven."
Something clicked behind his expression. "The Hell Breach."
"Yeah."
"And then she was sent down."
"She told me they were supposed to come back eventually."
Ash's mouth tightened slightly. "They were."
"But they didn't."
"No."
I looked out over Alderra again. The difference between this place and Evervale suddenly felt more obvious.
Ash followed my gaze. "Does that bother you?"
"What?"
"This."
He motioned toward the city.
I waited.
"Alderra isn't perfect," he continued, "but most people here will live their entire lives without experiencing what people in Evervale consider normal. Their children don't grow up listening for Hunt alarms every time they go to sleep."
I looked toward him. "You think that's unfair."
"I think unfair is a mild word for it."
"You're King of the Third Layer."
"I know."
"You live even farther away from the Pit than they do."
"I'm also aware of that."
There was no defensiveness in his answer.
Ash looked down over the city. "Evervale exists directly above the Pit. Every major breach reaches your people first, and the entire system has spent generations treating that like an unavoidable fact."
"It kind of is."
"Is it?"
"The Pit's underneath us."
"That part is."
I understood what he meant.
Ash continued. "What isn't unavoidable is how little the people above Evervale are expected to sacrifice in return."
I considered that. "Alderra helped after the Imgrel."
"After nearly a third of Evervale died."
I didn't answer.
"The Fourth Layer usually doesn't interfere with your Hunts," he said. "You know that."
"Yeah."
"So why did it take something that catastrophic?"
I glanced down toward the streets. "I don't know."
"That's part of what bothers me."
His tone remained calm. He wasn't giving some speech or trying to make me angry.
He genuinely seemed annoyed by it.
I thought about the question. "I don't think people here are responsible for what happens to us."
"I agree."
"Then I don't know who you expect me to blame."
"I'm not asking you to blame anyone."
"Sounds like you are."
Ash smiled slightly. "Maybe a little."
I shook my head.
He looked back over the city. "The system is flawed."
"Probably."
"That's all I get?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"What do you think should change?"
I was quiet for longer this time. "I don't know."
Ash looked toward me.
"That's the problem," I continued. "You can say it's unfair, and I'd probably agree with you. But if every Hunter in Evervale decides tomorrow that they're done because it isn't fair, who dies first?"
Ash didn't answer.
"We do."
He nodded slowly. "The people in Evervale."
"Yeah."
"So you keep fighting."
"What else am I supposed to do?"
"That's a good question."
"It wasn't really a question."
"I know."
We stood there for a while. The wind moved across the balcony, carrying distant noise from the city with it.
Ash eventually straightened slightly. "Do you actually want to become Ranked?"
"We already talked about that."
"You said yes. You didn't say why."
"I want to be stronger."
"You can become stronger without a number beside your name."
"I know."
"Then why Ranked?"
I looked toward the streets below us. "Because Ranked Hunters get called when things go wrong."
Ash waited.
"They get access to better training, more information, stronger assignments. If something happens that regular Hunters can't handle, the Ranks are the ones expected to deal with it."
"Like the Imgrel."
"Exactly."
Ash watched me for a moment. "You stood against it without being Ranked."
"And almost died."
"You think a title would've changed that?"
"No."
"Then?"
I rubbed my thumb against one of the rough edges of the railing. "If something like that happens again, I don't want to be standing there hoping somebody stronger shows up."
Ash didn't respond immediately.
I continued. "I don't care about being known as number twelve or number fifteen or whatever I'd end up at. I want to be capable of doing the job."
"That matters more to you than the position."
"Yeah."
"What about ascending?"
I looked at him. "Ascending where?"
"Higher."
"I haven't thought about it much."
"That surprises me."
"Why?"
"Most ambitious Hunters eventually start looking upward."
"I guess I'm not most Hunters."
Ash smiled slightly. "Apparently not."
I let out a quiet breath.
We had been talking for long enough that my original nervousness around him had almost disappeared. Almost.
I looked toward him. "You still haven't told me why you wanted to meet."
Ash turned his head. "I told you. I wanted to know more about you."
"You came down from the Third Layer because you wanted to know why I became a Hunter?"
"No."
At least he didn't pretend.
Ash pushed away from the railing. "But I did want to know."
"And the actual reason?"
His expression became a little more focused. "The Imgrel."
I expected that.
Ash looked back toward Alderra. "More specifically, the end of your fight with it."
"What about it?"
"How much do you remember?"
"Most of it."
"Good."
He leaned against the railing again. "Tell me what happened before your final attack."
"You have reports."
"I have a lot of reports."
"Then you already know."
"I know what everyone watching saw."
His eyes settled on me through the dark glasses. "I want to know what happened to you."
That was different.
I looked away. The memory returned faster than I wanted.
Pain. Blood. My body refusing to move.
Then the voice.
You can't give up now. You have to bring her to the top.
Isabella.
I kept my eyes on the city.
"I was done."
"Physically?"
"Everything."
"How bad?"
"I shouldn't have been standing."
Ash remained quiet.
"Vireth was still there," I continued, "but I couldn't do much with it anymore. I remember looking at the Imgrel and knowing I wasn't going to stop it."
"And then?"
I hesitated. "I heard something."
Ash's expression didn't change.
"A voice?"
"Yeah."
"What did it say?"
I looked toward him.
For the first time since we started talking, I didn't want to answer. He noticed.
"I don't remember all of it," I said.
It wasn't convincing. Ash knew that.
He still didn't challenge me.
"What do you remember?"
"Telling me not to give up."
Ash waited.
I didn't add anything.
After a few seconds he nodded. "And after the voice?"
"Something changed."
"How?"
"I don't know how to explain it."
"Try."
I took a breath. "It felt like something entered me. Not exactly that, but close."
"Power?"
"Yeah."
"Vireth?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Ash noticed that too. "You're certain."
"I know Vireth."
"And this wasn't it."
"Not even close."
I looked at my hands. "My body started moving again. I could feel myself doing everything, but it also felt like I wasn't completely alone."
Ash went still. "What do you mean?"
"Like somebody was helping me move."
"You lost control?"
"Not exactly."
I shook my head. "That's what I mean. I don't know how to explain it."
Ash thought for a moment. "Did it feel hostile?"
"No."
"Painful?"
"No."
"Familiar?"
"Definitely not."
He nodded slowly.
Then he reached inside his coat.
Ash pulled out a rolled sheet and spread it across the balcony railing. I recognized the five vertical shapes immediately.
The Layers.
Beneath the lowest was the huge inverted structure representing the Pit. Symbols and numbers filled the rest of the page.
I stared at them.
Ash looked toward me. "You have no idea what any of that means."
"Not even a little."
"That saves me time."
I gave him a look.
Ash pointed toward a section near the Fifth Layer. "The Third Layer monitors energy movement between the Layers constantly. Most fluctuations are normal. Gates, Eidolons, Hunts, certain kinds of Pit activity."
His finger moved to another set of markings. "During your fight with the Imgrel, our instruments picked up something we couldn't identify."
"From the Imgrel?"
Ash looked at me. "From you."
I stared at him.
"That power?"
"That's what I wanted to know."
I looked back at the page. "You don't know what it was?"
"No."
"Your researchers?"
"No."
"Calexis?"
"If Calexis knew, she'd have told me."
I took a second. "That's not very reassuring."
"It isn't supposed to be."
At least he was consistent.
Ash moved his finger farther down the diagram. "The reason we care isn't only that you produced an unknown energy signature. Something else happened at almost the same time."
"The Pit."
He glanced toward me. "Exactly."
There were several dense markings around the lower portion.
"Activity inside the Pit has been changing for a while. Slowly at first. Enough that researchers noticed it, but not enough that anyone expected what happened three months ago."
"The Imgrel."
"We believe so."
Ash folded his arms. "When you produced that energy, the Pit produced one of the largest spikes we've recorded in years."
I stared at the diagram. "You think they're connected."
"I think it would be stupid not to consider it."
"But you don't know."
"No."
"What's causing the Pit to change?"
Ash shook his head. "That's the problem."
He looked out over Alderra again. "It could be the Pit itself. Something deeper inside it. A creature we haven't encountered before. Someone interfering with it. There are several possibilities and not enough evidence to choose one."
The thought settled uncomfortably. The Imgrel had killed more people than I wanted to think about.
If that wasn't random—
"What do you want me to do?"
Ash looked at me.
I glanced toward the drawing of the Pit. "You want me to go down there."
For the first time since the conversation became serious, Ash actually laughed. Not loudly.
Just enough that I frowned.
"No."
"No?"
"Dagian, you still have bandages under half your clothes and you can't summon your Eidolon."
"I know."
"If I sent you into the Pit right now, I'd be solving the mystery of how quickly you could get yourself killed."
I stared at him.
He smiled faintly. "Recover."
"That's it?"
"For now."
Ash began rolling the sheet again. "We're expanding the investigation here in Alderra. Researchers are coming down from the Third Layer, the Hunter organization is cooperating, and the noble houses have already agreed to provide what we need."
"And me?"
"You're part of it."
I frowned slightly. "In what way?"
"Questions. Testing once you're well enough. We want to see what happens when Vireth returns, whether anything about your Eidolon has changed, and whether we can detect that energy again."
"That sounds pleasant."
"It probably won't be."
I almost smiled.
Ash tucked the parchment away. "You're not a prisoner, Dagian. If you tell me no, I'm not going to have Calexis drag you into a laboratory."
"That sounds oddly specific."
"She volunteered."
I looked at him.
Ash's expression didn't change for a second.
Then he smiled. "She didn't."
I shook my head.
He leaned back against the railing. "I'd like your cooperation. That's all."
I looked toward the city.
If whatever was happening inside the Pit had caused the Imgrel, then I wanted to know. That part wasn't difficult.
"Alright."
Ash nodded. "Good."
We stayed at the balcony a little longer. The conversation felt finished.
Then Ash said, "There is one other thing."
I looked toward him.
He hesitated just slightly. "Erik."
Whatever ease I'd developed around him disappeared almost immediately.
"What about him?"
Ash noticed the change.
Of course he did.
"You don't like talking about your father."
"No."
"Then I won't keep you on it long."
I waited.
Ash rested one hand against the railing. "When was the last time you saw him?"
"Twelve years ago."
That actually seemed to surprise him.
"Twelve?"
"I was seven."
"And nothing since?"
"No."
Ash's expression became difficult to read behind the glasses. "He never returned to Evervale?"
"No."
"Never contacted you?"
"No."
I felt my jaw tighten slightly. "He left. That was it."
Ash was quiet.
There was no stupid comment about how complicated family could be. No attempt to defend a man he didn't know.
At least, I assumed he didn't.
Then Ash asked, "Did he ever send anything?"
Nairix flashed through my mind.
The letter. The tiny crimson pole.
I looked toward Ash. "Not directly."
He noticed that answer.
I knew he did.
But just like before, he didn't push.
"Alright."
I frowned. "Why are you asking?"
Ash looked out over the city. "Because Erik has been missing for three years."
For a second I thought I heard him wrong. "What?"
"Your father disappeared from the Third Layer roughly three years ago."
I stared at him.
Ash's voice remained calm. "No confirmed sightings. No direct contact that we've been able to verify. We've been looking for him ever since."
The words didn't make sense immediately.
"Three years?"
"Yes."
"He was in the Third Layer that whole time?"
"For most of it."
I straightened from the railing. "He left twelve years ago."
Ash nodded.
"So he spent nine years there and then just disappeared?"
"That's the simplest version."
I studied him. "What's the complicated version?"
Ash smiled slightly, but there wasn't much humor in it this time. "There are always disagreements over what qualifies as disappearing. Some people think he left intentionally. Others think something happened to him."
"What do you think?"
"I think Erik rarely did anything without a reason."
I looked at him more carefully. "You knew him."
Ash was silent for a moment. "Pretty well."
That bothered me more than I expected.
All those years.
Erik had left without saying goodbye and apparently gone on to build an entire life somewhere else. A life where people like Ash Mercer knew him well enough to talk about the way he made decisions.
I looked away. "Was he important?"
Ash turned toward me.
The question seemed to catch him off guard more than anything else I had asked. "You really don't know much about what he did after he left, do you?"
"I never cared."
There was probably more bitterness in that than I intended.
Ash didn't react to it. "Fair enough."
He looked toward the city again. "But yes. Erik was important."
I was quiet.
Ash continued carefully. "Important enough that when he disappeared, people noticed."
"You said you've been looking for him."
"We have."
"And you thought maybe he came back to me?"
"It was worth asking."
"He didn't."
"I believe you."
I looked down at the street far below.
Something about the whole thing irritated me.
Not because Erik was missing. At least, that was what I told myself.
It bothered me because I suddenly had information about him I hadn't asked for.
For twelve years, Erik had been simple.
He left.
That was enough.
Now apparently he had spent nine years in the Third Layer, became important enough that the King knew him personally, then disappeared without anyone knowing where he went.
I hated that I wanted to ask another question.
I asked anyway.
"Do you think he's dead?"
Ash answered quickly. "No."
I looked toward him.
"You sound sure."
"I know Erik."
That was all he said.
For some reason, that answer stayed with me.
Ash finally stepped away from the balcony. "We should probably head back before Calexis decides I've kidnapped you."
"Would she care?"
"No."
"Then we have time."
Ash laughed.
By the time we returned to the main chamber, Lady Koret was gone. Calexis remained almost exactly where we had left her.
She looked toward Ash. "You took your time."
"We had a lot to discuss."
Calexis's eyes shifted toward me. "How is he?"
"I'm standing right here."
"I wasn't asking you."
Ash smiled. "He's fine."
"I could've told you that."
"You would've said it less convincingly."
Calexis ignored him.
Ash turned back toward me. "Get some rest, Dagian. I'll find you again once we have something worth bothering you with."
"So I should expect to be bothered."
"Frequently."
That should have annoyed me more than it did.
I gave a small nod. "Alright."
Ash smiled and pushed his glasses slightly higher. "Good meeting you."
I hesitated.
Then nodded again. "You too."
And strangely enough, I meant it.
**
Nairix was sitting near the bottom of the cathedral steps when I walked outside. He had somehow found another bottle.
I didn't even bother asking what was in it.
He looked up at me. "You survived."
"Barely."
"That bad?"
"No."
I started down the steps.
Nairix stood and fell into pace beside me. "So?"
"So what?"
"How was meeting the King?"
I thought about it. "Long."
Nairix smiled. "Sounds like Ash."
I looked toward him. "You know him?"
"I know a lot of people."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"No, it wasn't."
I shook my head and kept walking.
Nairix took a drink. "What did he want?"
"Mostly to talk."
"That sounds harmless."
"It wasn't bad."
I glanced toward him. "He wants me involved in whatever they're investigating with the Pit."
Nairix didn't seem surprised.
"He told you about the energy readings?"
"Yeah."
"And what happened to you?"
"They detected something."
Nairix nodded once.
Again, no surprise.
That bothered me slightly.
Then I remembered the other part.
"He knew Erik."
Nairix's bottle stopped halfway toward his mouth. Only for a second.
Then he took another drink.
"They knew each other."
I looked at him. "Ash said Erik's been missing for three years."
Nairix was quiet.
I watched him.
Eventually he lowered the bottle. "That's what they say."
I frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means that's what they say."
"That didn't answer anything."
Nairix smiled faintly. "I've noticed you're getting better at recognizing that."
Before I could ask again, he started walking.
I stared at the back of his coat.
Something told me I wasn't getting much more out of him today.
I followed.
By the time we reached the medical grounds, the sun had shifted lower over Alderra. Nairix stopped outside.
"I'll see you around."
"That sounds threatening when you say it."
"I'm offended."
"You'll survive."
He smiled and disappeared back into the street.
I watched him for a few seconds before heading through the gate.
My head felt heavier than it had before the cathedral.
The Pit. The Imgrel. Whatever had happened to me during that fight.
Ash.
And now Erik.
Missing.
I hated that word already.
I walked through the courtyard and saw Isabella almost immediately.
She was still near the same bench where I had left her earlier, one leg tucked beneath her while she looked down at something in her hands. Whatever she was doing seemed important enough that she didn't notice me at first.
I stopped.
The voice came back again.
You have to bring her to the top.
I still had no idea what it meant. I didn't know who had spoken to me, what that power was, or why it had anything to do with Isabella.
For a moment I wondered whether I should've told Ash everything.
Then Isabella finally looked up.
Her eyes found me from across the courtyard.
Her entire expression changed. She sat up immediately and raised one hand high enough that there was no chance I could pretend not to see her.
"Dagian!"
Several people nearby looked toward her.
I sighed.
Then smiled.
Whatever else I didn't understand, that part was simple enough.
I started walking toward her.